Monthly Archives: November 2015

We are on mauve alert here, Whovians, mauve alert! This latest episode of Doctor Who changes everything we knew about the Doctor and about the show, and Moffat gave us some of his best writing, and Capaldi is the bestest Doctor ever, and, and, and…

Sorry about that. I got a bit carried away. “Heaven Sent” really was a phenomenal piece of work–when Moffat puts his mind to it, he can really write a solid story. This one was full of everything that makes his Doctor Who stories so memorable, full of terror and puzzlers and timey-wimey stuff. His twist of the Doctor’s cycle of death and revival was quite the shocker to me and one of the best twists he’s pulled on the show in years. Well done, Moffat.

What to say about Peter Capaldi? He was on fire in this week’s episode; everything about his Doctor was perfect–especially his dealings with Clara’s death. The way he continues to talk to her, forgetting that she’s not there anymore, reminds me of 2008’s “Partners in Crime” when we see the Tenth Doctor happily chatting away in the TARDIS before remembering that he’s alone.

And I’d just like to say that it was so nice to hear an explanation for the Doctor’s whole story of running from Gallifrey because he was bored. In this episode he admits that was a lie, which was always my theory about it. When we first met the Doctor and Susan in “An Unearthly Child”, the Doctor implied that they are in exile and could not return. When faced with the realization that he must contact Gallifrey in “The War Games”, the Doctor is terrified for his life. So there were always hints that there was something more sinister about his departure from Gallifrey than we saw on TV.

What about his claim of being the Hybrid? I see this going one of two ways: either it’s a reference to his statement of being half-human in the 1996 TV movie, or it’s a reference to Rusty’s statement from “Into the Dalek” about how the Doctor is a good Dalek. Either way, “Hell Bent” is shaping up to be one of the most exciting season finales ever!

Well, Thanksgiving is upon us once more, and it’s important to take the time to be thankful for all the good things in our lives. Or maybe there are some not-so-good things in your life, but you can always be thankful that it won’t last forever–something has to change. It may take awhile, but it will end. Trust me, I’ve seen it happen.

As always, I am thankful for my family and the wonderful friends God has placed into my life. And I am also thankful for you, my loyal readers, for making this blog so much fun to write.

Before I go into the emotional baggage that is the legacy of Clara’s death, let me just say that I think this was a much spookier episode than last week’s. It was darker and more psychological than “Sleep No More”, and Ashildr’s return contributed heavily to this. She has evolved from a sweet, enthusiastic Viking girl to a cold, calculating villain in a metamorphosis that is frankly chilling. She is not completely heartless as seen in the fact that she was genuinely remorseful over Clara’s death, and her idea to set up an asylum for alien refugees fleeing war or slavery shows that there is still some kindness in her. However, in her arrogance she fancies herself equal to the Doctor, but I think today she realized just exactly how big a mistake it was to make the Doctor her enemy. She refused his help in the past, and now he may never offer it again. As a random aside, we still don’t know what happened to Sam Swift, the brigand she saved at the end of “The Woman Who Lived”. Did they part ways? Did he somehow die? Was he elsewhere in the city?

It was great to see Rigsy again; I really enjoyed his appearance last season, and it was nice to see how he turned his life around and was back on the straight and narrow–and he even had a little family with Jen and Lucy. Also, the Doctor once again proved that he is not as gruff as he would have you believe with his fascination with little Lucy. No matter his incarnation, the Doctor will always have a soft spot for children.

And now to the meat of the episode–Clara’s death. I remarked earlier in the season that Clara has been getting more reckless and manic since Danny’s death, a fact which the Doctor and Rigsy comment on in the episode. She’s more and more willing to take wild risks that the Doctor takes all the time–but the Doctor is a 2,000-year-old Time Lord, and Clara is merely human. Although she’s been a time traveler for a while, she still lacks his years and experience, and her plans do not always work as well as the Doctor’s. She tried to buy them more time to clear Rigsy’s name of murder, but her risk was based on incomplete information, and this was what cost her her life. It was certainly a change from Katarina and Adric’s sacrificial deaths to have Clara die due to her own mistake, yet I believe this was suitable to her character arc. As I mentioned earlier, she had become more manic and reckless since Danny’s death, whether from a belief that she had nothing left to live for or a subconscious desire to find Danny somewhere in the afterlife I’m not sure. Still, it was a believable consequence of the choices she had been making, so I thought that part was well done. This doesn’t mean I’m fine with Clara’s death; on the contrary, I’m going to miss her very much. I didn’t like her a whole lot when she first appeared as the Eleventh Doctor’s companion, but she really started to come into her own once Capaldi took over as the Doctor.

Next week, the Doctor must cope with Clara’s death as he faces an unknown adversary on a mysterious world, and at some point during the two-part finale, Moffat has promised that we will revisit this epic scene from 2013’s “The Day of the Doctor”.

For supposedly the most terrifying Doctor Who episode ever, “Sleep No More” didn’t terrify me in the least. I mean, the ending with Rasmussen was kind of creepy, but it was creepy in a cool kind of way. Other than that, I wasn’t feeling the terror. Then again, I am notoriously difficult to scare.

Even if I was disappointed with the scare factor, I did like the premise of the Sandmen–sentient dust particles that devour you if you don’t sleep is definitely a classic case of Doctor Who taking something innocuous like statues or wifi and turning it into something that eats your face. Having the dust just plain watching you is something that I know resonated with audiences everywhere (even me a little bit). There were definitely some clever twists, too, about where we got the footage when no one had helmet cameras and why Rasmussen was collecting the footage in the first place. I can definitely see some Whovians losing sleep over this one.

Next week, Rigsy returns! And sooner or later, everyone must face the raven…

I’m just going to come right out and say that we still don’t know which Osgood survived Missy’s attack, but I have a sneaking suspicion it was the human Osgood for reasons I will explain a little later.

In this episode, Clara proves her time in the TARDIS has equipped her for every possible situation. When she figures out that she is trapped inside a Zygon pod, she uses the telepathic link between herself and Bonnie (the Zygon who assumed Clara’s form) to sabotage Bonnie’s attack on the Doctor’s plane and to text the Doctor to say she is still alive. She was also very cool under pressure and unphased by Bonnie’s threats. Clara’s been around awhile; she knows when someone is serious and when someone’s just bluffing. That is one of the qualities I will miss about her when she leaves.

The standout portion of the episode was the Doctor’s speech to Bonnie about what she hopes the war will accomplish–and the Doctor surmises that Bonnie hasn’t thought her plan through very well, for once she has changed the world into what she wants it to be, how will she defend it against the people who will rise up in revolution against her? And, being a nerdy Catholic girl, I honed in on this particular aspect of the Doctor’s speech: “You kids throwing tantrums, you’re all the same! You all think you’re unforgivable. Well, I’ve got news for you–I forgive you.” Maybe that wasn’t specifically meant to be a theological study, but, as stated earlier, I am a nerdy Catholic girl; I am going to make random connections to Catholicism.

Now, as for my suspicion that the Zygon Osgood was killed in “Death in Heaven”–by the end of the episode, Bonnie has chosen to abandon the war and let her people live in peace. Rather than keeping Clara’s face, she opted to duplicate Osgood to replace the one who died. This is why I suspect the human Osgood is the one who survived–I’ve never heard of a Zygon duplicating another Zygon. Bonnie would have to have duplicated from the original…from the human.

Next week is supposedly our scariest episode ever. Considering it’s written by Mark Gatiss, I can believe that; he’s written some doozies in the past.

In contrast to yesterday when were celebrating the feasts of all the saints in Heaven whether they’re canonized or not, today we commemorate the souls in Purgatory. There they are purified from all attachment to sin so that they are worthy to enter the presence of God. A good priest that I knew died earlier this year, so he is a new addition to my list of people to pray for this year.